4. Food - Pack enough to last 5 to seven days. Rice, oat meal, beef jerky, energy bars etc. Another option is MRE's and the freeze dried foods often sold to campers and hikers. Choose foods that are light weight and a suitable shelf life.

5. Stove - A small stove is essential it you want to stay hidden. Smoke and noise from the cutting and burning of wood would be undesirable if you are in hostel territory or being pursued. I have a Peak-One backpackers stove, there are others but this is what I have and can recommend.

6. Sleeping bags - If you are in a cold area a good sleeping bag could mean the difference between life and death. Get a light weight "mummy" style bag rated to -20 degrees.

7. Shelter - Rain poncho and tarp or compact tent, stick with natural colors that blend with the surrounding area.

18. Firearms - This is were feathers get ruffled and wounds opened. Everyone has their own idea of what the "perfect" survival firearm is or should be.

I am not going to get into all the choices here, which would be an article in and of itself. Instead I am going to tell you my personal grab and go weapons of choice. Ready? Springfield XD9, Ruger MK II and Savage bolt action in .308 Win.

Black Blade: Fairly close to what I have including the Alice Pack. Like the author says, everyone has their choice of firearms at the ready for when they high-tail it out for the high country. My problem is that I have so many choices that narrowing it down can be difficult. For now my "grab and go" guns in order of importance are:

1. PSL-54C - ammo is cheap and comparable to a .308
2. Glock 19 - common gun in common cal.
3. Tokarev TT-33 - in my part of the world a "bear gun" is advisable.
4. P-64 - a couple of these pocket rockets fit easily in the pack as backup.

When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin

Add a couple contractor bags from Home Deopot to that. They are usefull for all kinds of things.
In fact they are big enough that the Alice fits into the bag, if you need to keep it dry in the back of a pick-up.

We don't live in a flood or wildfire zone, and there are no factories or major roads nearby that might be a hazmat problem. For most situations our plan is to "bunker up" and wait out any problems. We have water, food, and other supplies to last a couple of weeks. Leaving would be "Plan B."

Our main problems are health-related. My wife takes half a dozen meds for some serious conditions. She'd probably make it a few weeks without them before she packed it in. She gets samples from her doctor and we store them in the freezer, rotating stock from oldest to newest, since our insurance keeps us on a 30-day leash. We've been extending our supplies slowly. My problems are less severe, but neither one of us is going to make it long out in the woods, so most of our scenarios involve staying near any possible medical care.

Other than that, we don't have a single bug-out bag. Instead, we have a large bookcase near the door, with various bags in it - our overnight bags, prepacked in case we go somewhere, my motorcycle tailbag, which has maps and a medical kit, spare cellphone charger, several flashlights including one with both 115v and 12v chargers, power inverter, spare CPAP machine, small supplies of water and food. Elsewhere, we have meds, fireproof box with important papers, firearms, tools, etc. We have the bags graded in order of importance; load up in order as time and space permit, then boogie.

If your concerned about keeping important papers safe look into putting them on file. If you take the originals to your local Town Hall or Records office they will scan them and they will be on file indefinitely. I did that with my birth cert. and my DD-214 when I got out of the Marines. The documents are filed electronically as well as a hard copy is filled.